Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spotlight on the seamy side of life, September 9, 2006
Bukowski tends to, as far as I can tell, polarize readers something fierce. There are those who claim that he belongs among the highest pantheon of American writers for his no holds barred writings and ability to tell it like it is. Others will say that his stories aren't worth the paper they're printed on, full of trash writing and vulgarity, appealing to only the basest of emotions. While I don't think he's a literary genius, I certainly don't think his writing can be dismissed totally out of hand, at least not from the representative sample presented in this collection. Most of the stories focus on a male character, who may or may not be Bukowski, going about his day in some fashion, which will generally include drinking, picking up women or otherwise seeing whatever bizarre things lie at the edge of society. His style is deceptively simple, never flowery or ornate but somehow getting the point across anyway, at its best his words take on a Hemmingwayesque sparseness, the short declarative sentences forming a terse rhythm that gives them more resonance than you would otherwise think. Strangely enough a lot of those moments come at the end of a story, he's good at wrapping tales up, often finishing with a paragraph or two of sobering observation, capping it with some variation of a fatalistic, "well, whatever." At their heart the stories strike me as honest, they're rough and unadorned, but sincere all the same. The most honest ones may be the autobiographical-type tales, not knowing a whole lot about the man I can't tell how much is totally invented and how much was real but those ones (such as "Life and Death in the Charity Ward") have the ring of stark reality about them. He depicts life in the sideways corners, the people who hold the odd jobs, who need a drink to get through the day, the greasy squalor of it all, seen briefly admist the mess of neon lights and burnt out streetlamps, dirty apartments, sweaty desperate couplings, the hope of betting money at the race track and praying that this time, maybe, God willing, you might hit it big. Not huge, but just enough to live comfortably for just one more day. Bukowski depicts them, and by extension himself, unflinchingly and with equal parts contempt and sympathy. The people in his stories are just trying to live, the same as anyone else, and this is how they live. For all the vulgarity and whatnot, nothing in here really shocked me, even the most abrasive act is rendered somehow touching, either through his dry commentary or a dark bit of humor. Even "The Fiend", probably the most disturbing story in here, is balanced by the main character's fate at the end. This collection is by no means perfect, reading too many of these in a row could drive you mad, as a lot of it can strike you as variations on a theme. But read in small chunks, these stories act like the best kind of punk rock music, it says what it has to say and gets the heck out, with not a single word wasted. For those capable of stomaching what amounts to kicking over a rock in the forest and seeing what kind of slimy insects crawl out, this is probably worth checking out. For the rest, you may have to build up your tolerance in other places first.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pushes the Boundaries of What Good Literature Is, March 21, 2006
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town challenges the reader. At times, Bukoswki seems to be asking, "How much can you take? How far can I go?" No question, he's at the top of his form as a writer here. The objections I have are not with his artistic skill, but with his choices in material. "The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, Calif.," is a disturbing tale of necrophilia. Bad enough. But "The Fiend" is perhaps the most repellent short story I have ever read--a morally repugnant tale of child rape. And after reading a biography of Bukowski, I discovered that the story was not simply a fictional take on sexual depravity, but a variation of an actual sexual fantasy Bukowski had. The author goes too far here. All writers must face their demons, and some do well to write about them. But what is so objectionable about the "The Fiend" is that Bukowski sets up the rape scene for a laugh. "The Fiend" is the largest stain on a very good writer's body of work. That said, this book contains some of Buk's best work, such as the title story, which might be the best introduction to Bukowski's short story style. Also great is "Life and Death in the Charity Ward," about Bukowski's near fatal drinking bout. If I had to recommend one short story of his, it would be "Most Beautiful" or "Life and Death." "Kid Stardust on the Porterhouse" is also great, a retelling of the half-day that Buk spent working at a slaughterhouse. Given the varying quality of this book, Bukowski fans might come away from it with mixed feelings.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My first taste of The Buk, February 18, 2000
I stumbled into City Lights Books in SF and they recommended Bukowski. Always skeptical of "artistic literary" types, I decided to pick out a book of short stories to entertain my MTV attention span. I was very delighted with Bukowski's stories. Some are very creative (eg. Swastika) and most are downright vulgar! Throw in a bit of tragedy and a ton of tasteless humor (6 inches and The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, CA comes to mind) and you've got an idea of Bukowski's work. At many times, I found myself laughing out loud (very unusual for me) with his stories. I will probably pick up the second part of his short story volume (Tales of Ordinary Madness) as well as Post Office. Mad immortal tales, indeed.
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